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All the egalitarians want to believe everybody in the world has equal mental and physical abilities.

I’ve been in IT since 1983 and am quite aware that you could train a person of average intelligence to be a c#, Java or a host of other types of developer. I went to COBOL school at Boeing Computer Services for a measley 10 months and it VERY WELL prepared me to not only enter the IT workforce but be very successful as well.

So, I moved to rural KY three years ago on the edge of Apalacia and have seen the squalor in which many of my neighbors live. A lot of them STILL do not have indoor plumbing. And I think to myself: What if I started a free IT training course for the college aged kids here. It could completely change the economic environment and, who knows, could end up with the area being an IT development “outsourcing” location. It could compete with India, et-al and keep the jobs and money in the US - and wean the local culture off Coal.

But then reality sunk in. The pre- and post-natal care wasn’t there. The parental training in life skills is not there. The self confidence is not there. And on and on.

Sure, maybe one or two out of two hundred might make it, but it would be an exercise in futility that would have the added negative affect of slamming their self confidence and amplifying their belief that they are just poor, stupid hicks.

But the story is to be continued...

I think in some situations, like many people in Appalachia, apathy sets in. People get used to living on the gov. dole just subsisting. My wife grew up in England, and she spoke derisively of some of her cousins who actually quit decent paying jobs to get on the dole. Or didn't pursue opportunities because they could subsist on the dole.

It's a fact that many people simply don't have the IQ to make it in the modern world. It's also a shame that many people who have the mental capacity to make it give up. The thing about Appalachia.... it's not the only place in the world. If there's no jobs around where you live....MOVE!!!